QUEENSTON FC 7, Lakeside 1

Or so that's how the score felt as the whistle blew at the end of regulation.

Before I begin, this post is dedicated to Nick Sperrazza.  Not Nick Sperrazza that plays for the Meerkats, but of Lakeside, formerly of Amherst Raptors.  Because he said he reads my posts.  Whether genuine or sarcastic, all publicity is good publicity, so I shall continue with these write-ups.  Also, I'm adopting Matt M's new "rule" giving the winning team the right to CAPS LOCK their team name in the Topic line.  This is long overdue.

To the game: Lakeside let us know a few days ago they'd be wearing yellow, which basically forced us into our black unis.  The yellow team brought 15 I believe (a few guys showed up right as the opening whistle blew) and we had 16 for the evening.

Almost immediately, we're on the front foot in this game, and I'd say aside from the occasional counter or brief spell of possession from our foes, we remained on the front foot throughout the entire game.  The first half was weird.  We routinely got into good positions to score, but we were more interested in scoring on the imaginary net that's placed right above the actual net.  Over the course of the game, I suppose we hit that "target" one dozen times.  Maybe two-thirds of those took place in the first half.  I do recall Lakeside ringing one of the far post though, so it's not like they didn't manufacture any chances.  Half time comes and its 0-0, to our frustration.

Second half starts up and virtually nothing changes for the first 20 minutes.  More golden opportunities squandered.  Only difference now is, Lakeside looks REALLY gassed (aside from Brobbey/Acheampong/Domenico...all of their forwards posed the pace threat, at the very least).  We pick up a yellow card on a ball that Benny Rung wins, but his follow through grazes Charlie Barth's leg and he goes down in anguish.  Eye roll.  He had already gotten under the skin of the entire officiating crew and this basically lines up with anything I've ever heard about the guy from people who have actually played against him before (as I hadn't).  Throughout the rest of the game, Barth continued to whine and call out Ben Rung for his yellow, even while he was sitting on the bench, to which the side AR said "enough", to which Barth then replied "I can't talk to my own bench?", which, although was clever on the spot, was a lie.  This guy, man.  Good time to mention that our center for this game wasn't terrible, but certainly not on his A game.  He would later call a hand ball on one of our players after he used the top of his shoulder to pop a ball up, this happening inside the 6' on a scoring chance...

Oh before I forget, Domenico and N. Rougeux were talking trash all game and it was really fun to listen to.  Domenico seemed to think he was faster than Noah, which is a) incorrect and b) had no support of such claim all game, but it eventually led to Domenico stating he's got good genes, to which Noah said, "I do too, they're mainly Levis...I like Levis".

Finally, we were able to manufacture a scoring chance that actually led to a goal.  Andrew Donner, from like a center mid position even though he was playing anywhere but all game, fed in a silky through ball to Frank Cotroneo, who got in alone and calmly put one past actually a fairly solid keeper.  We'd grab another goal maybe 7 minutes later when Justin Sims found Joe Conjerti inside the box, and he had a splendid finish while falling.  And this game was now 2-0, as we looked to run out the clock.  They had no legs, nothing worth while going forward, it was a formality.  

Or maybe not.  We looked like we were more concerned with burying a third goal by pushing our back line way up the field and not holding onto the ball an extra few seconds before tossing outlet passes to our wings, you know, to slow the game down.  A lackluster spell on defense allowed Andrew Brobbey to get a clean look on net and he buried it far corner to cut the lead in half.  We were now left with about 3 minutes, and we did everything you're supposed to do; dribble to the corner, delay the game ever so slightly, substitute...the works.  But sure enough, Lakeside was able to get the ball forward, and what seemed to be a harmless ball into our defensive 18' ended up being trouble.  The ball kind of died between where Netter could have come out to corral the ball, and it was enough trouble for our defense to work with while their back was to the rest of the open field, and it led to a quick miscommunication which left the ball on Pat Eadie's foot for longer than he desired.  His attempt to clear the ball was partially blocked by Brobbey's knee (I think it was him) and in what we'd feel was an amazingly unfortunate event, his knee produced the greatest angled upper 90 finish of all time.  2-2.  We bring the ball to midfield, kick it to one player and the regulation whistle blows.

If this was any other team, I'd be pretty worried at the moment.  They literally have all the momentum.  But as I mentioned earlier, these guys were completely gassed.  I'm talking to Suitor on the sideline and I pat him on the upper back to give him the standard 'alright let's get this now' speech, and wouldn't you know it, his robotic form took over with that pat on the back.  His response, almost out of body was, "TAKEOVER MODE BE-GINS NOWWW".  Puzzled, I watched him walk back on the field with one of those possessed looks, but just shrugged it off.  A few minutes into the first half of OT, Frank Cotroneo is pulled down maybe 5 yards outside the box, which is normally Greg Hoffman's bread and butter range, but Suitor stands over the ball, same possessed look as if he's just going through the motions, and he whips in a free kick over the wall and ends up tucking in to the right corner of the net.  A brilliant strike.  Suitor power walks back to our side of the field, receiving high fives but not talking.  A mere two minutes later, he finds himself in the box and he's elbowed up high by Bo Gurney, who receives his second yellow of the game.  Suitor steps up and buries the PK.  This time, Suitor power walks backwards to our side of the field.  A MAN POSSESSED!!!  But no, he's not done I tell ya: Now facing just 10 men and into the second half of OT, he flies down the right hand side of the pitch, into the box, to the touch line, waits patiently for people to move around, and picks out a curling Conjerti, who finds the netting on the far side to open up a 5-2 lead, which would be the final score.  What an unselfish ANIMAL/Kenny G-in-the-making with those blonde locks mannnnnnn! In between all of this Cotroneo, who was giving fits on the outside all game, struck a ball into the net (twice) as it pinged off the top cross and down over the line, then back up off the cross and down over the line, and the goal was not awarded.  No angle from the side AR, who stood somewhere in between the 18' and the "40'" all game on that end of the field.

This was by far the worst team we've faced all season.  But we did everything in our power to keep them afloat and sure enough it gave us 20 less minutes of bar time in the evening to celebrate Netter's 24th (we would have celebrated George's 27th but he was too busy being on vacation).  If we miss this many golden opportunities against BUSS on Sunday, there's no way we come away with points.  Best of luck to Lakeside this season the rest of the way, some nice guys on the team, but they will undoubtedly be in the mix of relegation this season.